Judges plead guilty in scheme to jail youths for profit

[Stella_Omega]

While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled...

 

[amicus]

Rather strange for me to read. I have been writing a novel, a very long novel about Revolution in America and a small part of the novel has to do with the shelters formed by the Revolutionary group, to house and care for the approximately 1.5 million homeless children living on the streets each year.

The shelter, housing these young people, caused the crime rate to decrease drastically in the near vicinity and the courts, reform schools, counsellors, foster parents, the entire system suddenly had nothing to do. So, they did essentially what you report, they began trying to invalidate the shelter system to get the kids back in the system.

Once a beaurocracy is in place, little or nothing can uproot it. Imagine a corrupt police, sheriff and country mounty organization cooperating with the courts to make sure the public employees had something to do.

Guess my imagination is right on target, eh?

Amicus...

 

[Stella_Omega]

Well, Ami, make sure your oh-so-heroic characters lift two-point-six million tax-payers' dollars in kickbacks, just like these two judges did!

 

[Huckleman2000]

[...]
Guess my imagination is right on target, eh?

Amicus...

Except that you got the villians wrong. This is private enterprise run amok.

Words fail me to describe my revulsion for these worms.

 

[bwallard]

This is not just a weird story. This is so much about how the market is not perfect where it does not factor in the social costs. Handing off the water supply to private interest and you'll soon be paying more for water than you pay now for internet. They have chauffeurs and girlfriends to feed.

Same thing for prisons. Beds to fill.

The market is real good at that kind of thinking.

About all it's good at.

 

[TE999]

While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled...

Somebody get a rope...make that two ropes.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Maybe the worst part is that any jail time these assholes do will be at some minimum security country club type place. I'd a lot rather see them doing hard time, such as they deserve, in with some real hard cases. That way, we wouldn't need a couple of ropes.

That is, of course, assuming they really are guilty.

 

[rgraham666]

Fortunately for us, most judges try to be honest and upright. Much as this incident sickens me I know it's an isolated incident.

And I am so not surprised that one of the usual subjects thinks that child slave labor is a good thing.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Maybe the worst part is that any jail time these assholes do will be at some minimum security country club type place. I'd a lot rather see them doing hard time, such as they deserve, in with some real hard cases. That way, we wouldn't need a couple of ropes.

That is, of course, assuming they really are guilty.

i think they will get the same kind of kind attention pedos get Even killers don't take well to those who target children.

They pled guilty, Box. Of course, they could be innocent... I'd say there's a one in five thousand chance of that, wouldn't you?

 

[glynndah]

Hmmm. How about an nice extended stay at that lovely juvenile detention center since they think so highly of it?

 

[amicus]

No, Huck, you got it wrong, it was still the judges that did the dastardly act and then demanded kickbacks from private enterprise, y'know, the ole Union trick.

Even so, neither addresses the causes for so many children to be 'thrown away', in modern society. Latchkey kids, kids from single parent families, kids from dysfunctional families, what ever the reason and however one rationalizes the tremendous numbers, something is terribly wrong and it is my purpose in the book to fully explain why in fictional form.

Amicus...

 

[Huckleman2000]

Hmmm. How about an nice extended stay at that lovely juvenile detention center since they think so highly of it?

Yup.
Except that I would not be at all surprised to find some revolting kid fetish at the root of this. I mean, no one is so craven as to unfairly sentence children out of mere greed, are they?

 

[TE999]

Yup.
Except that I would not be at all surprised to find some revolting kid fetish at the root of this. I mean, no one is so craven as to unfairly sentence children out of mere greed, are they?

Surely, you jest.

 

[sadangel]

Yup.
Except that I would not be at all surprised to find some revolting kid fetish at the root of this. I mean, no one is so craven as to unfairly sentence children out of mere greed, are they?

Um Yes. I'm afraid they exist.

 

[Boxlicker101]

No, Huck, you got it wrong, it was still the judges that did the dastardly act and then demanded kickbacks from private enterprise, y'know, the ole Union trick.

Even so, neither addresses the causes for so many children to be 'thrown away', in modern society. Latchkey kids, kids from single parent families, kids from dysfunctional families, what ever the reason and however one rationalizes the tremendous numbers, something is terribly wrong and it is my purpose in the book to fully explain why in fictional form.

Amicus...

We're not talking about "throw away kids" here. These are ordinary kids who were thrown into prison for some trivial thing, which may not have even been illegal. Or shouldn't have been.

 

[Stella_Omega]

No, Huck, you got it wrong, it was still the judges that did the dastardly act and then demanded kickbacks from private enterprise, y'know, the ole Union trick.

Even so, neither addresses the causes for so many children to be 'thrown away', in modern society. Latchkey kids, kids from single parent families, kids from dysfunctional families, what ever the reason and however one rationalizes the tremendous numbers, something is terribly wrong and it is my purpose in the book to fully explain why in fictional form.

Amicus...

No, Ami, you got it wrong.

it was the private jails that conspired with the judges to have the public facilities condemned, driving millions of tax dollars of lucrative business their way.

And the children these assholes sentenced should not have been going to any facility at all. Star students, kids who'd gotten into their first fight ever. Kids whose mothers stood there, dumbfounded as a young girl was taken away in manacles for a satirical publication. These were not "thrown away" children.

 

[rgraham666]

Yup.
Except that I would not be at all surprised to find some revolting kid fetish at the root of this. I mean, no one is so craven as to unfairly sentence children out of mere greed, are they?

In a society that has largely moved Avarice from the vice to the virtue column, it doesn't surprise me.

 

[amicus]

One of the amazing aspects of a free market place is the creation of a service to fill the need. Add to that the inherent ingredient, the necessity of a profit making venture, to justify the investment as a return on invested capital and if you strain your feeble little liberal minds to embrace that concept you will realize that such facilities could not exist without a guarantee of full utilization.

Considering the recent world wide financial crisis, I can easily accept the notion of corrupt businessmen along with corrupt government officials, criminals are criminals no matter what hat they wear.

My bone to pick with you folks is that you seem to always trust the beaurocracy to be honest and forth-right and always expect the businessman to be corrupt when in fact it just doesn't work that way.

A business that does not operate at a profit soon goes bankrupt unless it is propped up by a corrupt government official.

Amicus...

 

[Huckleman2000]

[...]
A business that does not operate at a profit soon goes bankrupt unless it is propped up by a corrupt government official.

Amicus...

Which is exactly why Justice should not operate as a profit-making enterprise.

 

[Boxlicker101]

One of the amazing aspects of a free market place is the creation of a service to fill the need. Add to that the inherent ingredient, the necessity of a profit making venture, to justify the investment as a return on invested capital and if you strain your feeble little liberal minds to embrace that concept you will realize that such facilities could not exist without a guarantee of full utilization.

Considering the recent world wide financial crisis, I can easily accept the notion of corrupt businessmen along with corrupt government officials, criminals are criminals no matter what hat they wear.

My bone to pick with you folks is that you seem to always trust the beaurocracy to be honest and forth-right and always expect the businessman to be corrupt when in fact it just doesn't work that way.

A business that does not operate at a profit soon goes bankrupt unless it is propped up by a corrupt government official.

Amicus...

There was no need until one was created by the crooked judges.

I certainly hope you are not justifying the operators of the detention centers. Basically, they bribed the judges to send them a lot of fresh meat so they could make big profits. This started during relatively prosperous times, not just recently. I don't think they are any more guilty than the judges; I just think they are no less guilty.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

What a pair of pigs! 87 months? How about 87 lashes each day for 87 months. I hope they end up on skid row if they live long enough to get out.

 

[Stella_Omega]

One of the amazing aspects of a free market place is the creation of a service to fill the need. Add to that the inherent ingredient, the necessity of a profit making venture, to justify the investment as a return on invested capital and if you strain your feeble little liberal minds to embrace that concept you will realize that such facilities could not exist without a guarantee of full utilization.

Considering the recent world wide financial crisis, I can easily accept the notion of corrupt businessmen along with corrupt government officials, criminals are criminals no matter what hat they wear.

My bone to pick with you folks is that you seem to always trust the beaurocracy to be honest and forth-right and always expect the businessman to be corrupt when in fact it just doesn't work that way.

A business that does not operate at a profit soon goes bankrupt unless it is propped up by a corrupt government official.

Amicus...

I expect bureaucracies to be corrupt in many ways but ultimately answerable, IF the citizenry really forces the issue.

I expect businesses to be exactly as corrupt as they can be, in whatever circumstances they find themselves in. And businesses rarely disappoint me in that regard.

Really, our best bet is that precarious balance between private enterprise, law, and social forces. Rather like our tripartate government.

 

[Boxlicker101]

What a pair of pigs! 87 months? How about 87 lashes each day for 87 months. I hope they end up on skid row if they live long enough to get out.

I hope they get stomped to death after about six months, and get raped repeatedly by every other convict there.

 

[amicus]

Which is exactly why Justice should not operate as a profit-making enterprise.

~~~~~~~~~~

Damnit, Huckleman, how I wish your ideology did not blind you so.

You forget, for I am sure you know, the history of 'public justice' meeted out by 'Chain Gang' type labor, sold to the highest bidder with corrupt wardens and state officials getting the kickbacks.

You forget all the truly evil things perpetrated by government at all levels against individuals and corporations in a long history of transgressions.

You might even acknowledge the efficacy of private mail and package carriers, private enterprise all, that has made the US Post Office completely obsolete and that continues to exist only because of government funding.

Even so, you attempt to re-invent the wheel in guessing just what government should and should not do when the power of our government is clearly limited by the Constitution of the United States.

Government is clearly obligated to defend the sovreignty of the nation with a military force, the protection of individual rights and liberties by a police force and a court system to enforce the law and penalize the criminals.

The means of incarceration can and should be leased out to private enterprise under strict rules and regulations that can be monitored by an independent agency empowered to do just that.

The entire fault of this fiasco with the teenagers falls fully and only in the hands of government and the corruption that follows when government agencies are unacccountable for their actions.

Amicus...

 

[xssve]

And you all accused me of being a conspiracy nut when I told you to go read Catherine Fitts blog at solari.

http://www.dunwalke.com/

This is just the the tip of the iceberg.